7 Things You Absolutely Must Know When Migrating from Legacy ERP

It’s not a question of whether companies will migrate away from legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) but when. It will happen, and most industry experts say it will happen within the next two to four years. Since it is going to happen, it’s best to be prepared.

Preparation always starts with knowing what to expect. In the fast-moving world of Software as a Service (SaaS), however, it’s difficult to know what to expect. Even when a company chooses not to go purely SaaS, some change is going to happen. These aspects of migration are a few that absolutely must be considered before any level of migration takes place.

Start with a Solid Strategy

It’s kind of cliché to compare a migration to a journey of any type, but the reason that it’s cliché is because that’s exactly what any type of migration looks like. Whether an organization chooses to go purely cloud based or to some type of hybrid solution that’s partially in house and partially in the cloud, knowing the destination is the first step to planning the journey.

A migration strategy includes not only a timeline and budget for the migration project but also the business imperatives that migrating ERP away from the legacy installation is expected to achieve. The strategy should be a well-thought-out plan for how to get from the beginning of the journey to the final destination.

Create Change Management Policies

Change management is one area where many ERP migrations fail miserably. Organizations often don’t anticipate all of the changes that will be necessary to make migration successful, especially when the migration is from an in-house ERP system to a full or partial cloud-based system. Moving a system to the cloud doesn’t mean that everything remains the same except for where the ERP system resides. On the contrary: Cloud-based applications require detailed levels of change in both management and the way the system is used. Be prepared for the change that’s coming.

Think Proactively About Security

Data is the new world currency, and putting data in the cloud makes it a much larger target than when little pockets of it reside on a server here and there. That means security continues to be a major consideration when doing any type of migration, including migrating away from a legacy ERP system.

The best time to evaluate security is before there is a problem. When considering the new ERP system components, spend plenty of time and effort making sure that the right security for the specific needs of the system is in place.

Who Controls the Data?

This is an often-heard refrain, because it’s essential to understand who control the data if they are migrated out of the legacy system. In an SaaS scenario, how difficult will it be to have data migrated back in house or to another provider in the event that the current relationship doesn’t work out?

That also brings to mind the question, Where do the data live? Is it in the same country as the organization? If not, what laws and regulations need to be addressed during migration? Data are the single most expensive asset in a migration, so understanding who has control and where the data are is one of the top considerations to be addressed.

Agree on Service-level Metrics

It’s not enough to say there is a service level agreement (SLA) in place. There also needs to be a thorough understanding, by all parties, of what metrics are important and how those metrics are measured. This is not the place to allow language to be lax. Instead, what is being measured, how it is being measured, and what consequences apply if agreed-upon metrics aren’t met should be clearly defined and detailed in the SLA.

Prepare for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

No one can predict what will happen in the future. The best possible controls and preparations can be put in place, and a man-made or natural disaster can occur that completely destroys all of those controls and preparations. It’s imperative that disaster preparedness and business continuity be addressed before something goes wrong.

Build a Solid Exit Strategy

The best planning, strategies, and preparations won’t always ensure that a relationship works out. Any number of consequences can precipitate the need to move to another service provider or to bring ERP functionality back in house. Without a solid exit strategy, however, organizations can find that they are locked into contracts that are nearly impossible to break or at best are expensive to dissolve. Prepare an exit strategy before ever entering into a new relationship.

It’s impossible to be prepared for every eventuality, but prepare as much as possible. That’s the best possible strategy to take before migrating away from legacy ERP systems.

About the Author

Jerri Ledford has been writing about business technology for more than 20 years. Her articles, profiles, news stories, and reports have appeared in such venues as Intelligent Enterprise, Network World, Information Security Magazine, DCM Magazine, and CRM Magazine. She develops and teaches technology courses for enterprises such as Sony, HP, and CNET and is the author of 19 business technology books, including Google Analytics and The SEO Bible. Jerri is a Studio B analyst.

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